Saigontourist Travel Service Co. this year will maintain their special tours during the Tet holiday season to serve foreign travelers to Vietnam tour.

This year’s products by Saigontourist include a one-day ‘Welcoming Tet in the Mekong Delta’ priced at VND945,000 from Jan 16 to 22 and ‘Enjoying Tet with the Saigonese’ at VND630,000 for a half day from Jan 23 to 26.

The first tour sees tourists join a sightseeing program, visit colorful flower markets, pagodas and make banh tet (glutinous rice cakes) along with My Tho City’s residents.

Companies of Vietnam tour are currently offering a variety of attractive promotional programs for the upcoming holidays of Christmas, New Year and Tet (Lunar New Year).

Fidi Tourist Company is offering visitors more than 200 local and international tours. The Company is partnering with Vietnam Airlines and offering discounts of VND3.9 million (USD177) to VND6.9 million on tours that cover Hanoi-Bac Ninh-Halong-Trang An-Bai Dinh and Hanoi-Bac Ninh-Lao Cai-Sapa; and of VND8 million on a 7 day tour of London-Stonehenge-Wales, departing Ho Chi Minh City on December 9, 15, and 23.

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has asked all domestic travel agencies to suspend travel itineraries of Vietnam tour groups to Thailand until floodwaters begin to recede in the country.

Vietnamese tourists in Bangkok can contact the Vietnamese Embassy on phone number 0066 818 460 571 or email tamphamhung@yahoo.com for any information and support.

Earlier, several companies of Vietnam tour had suspended package tours to Bangkok although the Tourism Authority of Thailand insisted that the city was safe for tourists.

Two months of constant flooding has inundated 58 of the 77 Thai provinces, with 28 being severely affected, and the livelihood of millions of people put on hold, according to news reports.

Foreign visitor numbers surged by 80.9 percent in October compared with the previous month, totalling 518,477, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said.

Of those, about 445,612 international visitors arrived by plane, accounting for 85.9 percent of the total visitors; 1,500 by sea, 0.3 percent; 71,365 by road, 13.8 percent.

The number of foreign  travelers to Vietnam tour by plane increased by 24.6 percent in comparison with the same period last year while the number of international visitors arriving by sea and road decreased 66.7 percent and 8.5 percent respectively.

Costa Classica cruise ship is scheduled to dock at Halong Bay at 8am on November 1, bringing 2,200 foreign travelers to Vietnam tour.

These visitors have booked a trans-Viet tour organized by the Saigontourist Travel Service Company.

After arriving at Halong Bay, they will visit Yen Tu and Long Tien pagodas, explore local markets and enjoy traditional art performances.

In the afternoon, the visitors will leave Halong for Da Nang in central Vietnam, where they make a tour of Hoi An ancient city, My Son relics and the former Hue imperial capital. These sites have been recognized as World Heritage by UNESCO.

After a month of introductory single-night cruises, Life Resorts plans to make multiple-night voyages in Halong Bay on heritage junks available in time for the grand opening on November 4.

A group of travel agents, Vietnam tour operators, government officials and reporters will be the first to experience the Life Resorts fleet on a Halong Bay cruise the day after the opening celebrations, the company said in a press release.

Numbering 22 in all, Life Resorts’ 15-meter boats have been designed and are maintained according to the highest international safety standards.

Vietnam artists performed at the Midosuji Kappo Festival in Osaka, the third largest city of Japan, on October 9, as part of efforts to promote the country as a tourist destination to Japan.

Midosuji Kappo is a popular street festival held annually in Osaka with cultural and art activities that take place in Midosuji Boulevard .

On this occasion, the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (VA), the main sponsor of this year’s festival, introduced its wide-ranging products and services.

Though some areas in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang have been flooded in the last few days, tourist attractions are still open to the public.

Several downtown areas of Long Xuyen town are submerged in floodwater and vast areas of rice crops in the province have been destroyed. Two days ago, the local government built two seawalls in a bid to prevent the water level rising any higher, Nguyen Phu Phuc, vice director of tourism center under An Giang Tourimex, said.

Since early this year, Vietnam has greeted more than 4.3 million foreign tourist arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 15.5 percent, reported the Vietnam General Statistics Office.

Of the total, the number of foreign travelers to Vietnam tour by air was nearly 3.6 million, a year-on-year rise of 20.4 percent. In the first nine months this year, nearly 2.6 million arrivals visited the country for recreation purposes, up 10.9 percent.

Five Uzbekistani travel companies have conducted a fact-finding trip in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, with an aim of opening tours from the Central Asia to Nha Trang this winter.

Representatives from these companies and 50 tourism businesses in Khanh Hoa Province yesterday participated in a meeting to promote the destination of Nha Trang, held by Khanh Hoa Tourism Promotion Information Centre.

Mr. Luyen Manh Cuong, the Centre’s Deputy-Director said that Uzbekistani partners would open chartered flights between Uzbekistan Capital of Tasken and Cam Ranh Airport.